1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for mounting conductive balls in mounting locations on amount which are formed in a predetermined pattern using an arraying mask in which through holes are provided in such a manner as to match the mounting locations.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method and apparatus for mounting conductive balls in mounting locations on a mount which are formed in a predetermined pattern using an arraying mask in which through holes are provided in such a manner as to match the mounting locations, JP-A-2006-318994 discloses a method and apparatus for arraying conductive balls on amount by a ball reservoir accommodating therein a large number of conductive balls moving over an arraying jig.
In the mounting approach adopted in the method and apparatus for mounting conductive balls disclosed in JP-A-2006-318994 in which conductive balls are dropped to be mounted by the moving ball cup, conductive balls are caught between the ball cup and the arraying mask. In addition, as the diameters of conductive balls used get smaller, higher accuracies are required for the gap between the ball cup and the arraying mask, flatness of the arraying mask and horizontal travel of the ball cup, and with these accuracies getting lower, there has been caused a risk that conductive balls leak from the gap between the ball cup and the arraying mask.
In order to prevent the occurrence of conductive balls being caught in the way described above, JP-A-2006-73999 discloses an apparatus and method in which a collection of balls within a ball cup (a tubular member in JP-A-2006-73999) are prevented from being brought into contact with a wall of the ball cup by a gas flow while the ball cup is moving horizontally.
However, since the ball cup had to be moved in such a manner that the collection conductive balls were not brought into contact therewith, the moving speed of the ball cup could not be increased to high speeds, this having led to a problem that a long period of time was necessary for the mounting process. In addition, although it was considered that the flow speed of gas flowing in from the gap between the arraying mask and the ball cup was increased to high speeds, with the gas flow speed so increased, conductive balls were not able to be collected on the arraying mask but were caused to scatter in the gas within the ball cup, and there sometimes occurred a situation in which no conductive balls were mounted in some of the mounting locations.